Optimising the Curb Appeal of Your Healthcare Practice

When planning the refurbishment or fitout of your healthcare practice, it’s important not to forget an important design detail: curb appeal. 

How your clinic looks from the outside can have a huge impact on what potential patients think about your business.  If your exterior is clean, inviting and professional, it’s a great advertisement of the type of practice you are running.

We explore three key areas of your practice exterior that can help to boost the curb appeal of your healthcare practice, and entice more clients through your door.

Signage

Your signage can be one of the best ways to stand out to passing traffic. Even if you are renting your premises, you typically will have control over your signage.

Here’s a few top tips to ensure your sign gets noticed.

• Keep it simple – try to limit your sign to feature only a few key elements to maximise its effectiveness.  Make sure you include your logo and key contact details, such as phone number and website.
• Make it clear – if your logo doesn’t make it obvious what your clinic does, make sure you have your specialty listed your sign – e.g. if you’re a vet, make sure you have the word “vet” in your sign.  Also don’t forget to use a font type that is easy to read, and large enough to be legible.
• Consider location – where you place your signage is extremely important.  While your shop-front signage will be determined by your building type and the space available, you will have more options for your street-frontage signage.  When choosing your signage location, consider how the sign will be viewed (e.g. on foot or from vehicles; by passing or stationary traffic).  These variables will also impact the type and size of signage that will be most effective.

Glass Windows & Doors

Large fixed windows or glass doors are great for creating attractive and durable frontages for your practice.

Whether you’re located in a shopping centre or in a stand-alone building, including large windows and glass doors in your façade is a great way to attract the attention of passers-by and to showcase the practice’s warm and inviting feel.  And if they’re impressed with what they see, it may provide the impetus to book an appointment.

If privacy is important to your patients, frosted windows often offer the perfect balance between privacy, lighting and style. You can even incorporate your branding into the window frosting.

Lighting

While your practice might not be open at night, that doesn’t mean that potential clients aren’t passing by your practice.  Exterior lighting is a great way to catch people’s attention – and it adds a great visual appeal to your business.

• Consider using a variety of lights – a mix of spotlights, façade lights, wall lights and landscaping lights can help to draw attention to different aspects of your premises.
• Improve safety and security – lighting up your practice exterior will help make your property less attractive to potential thieves, and will also make your employees feel safer if they need to arrive or leave work in the dark.  Having good lighting will also provide your clients with a clear and safe path to your door if you run extended clinic hours into the evening.
• Don’t forget your signage – your signage will also benefit from being illuminated.  This can be as simple as having a spotlight on your sign, or if you’re in a high traffic area, you could instead opt for an LED backlit sign.

Contact Elite

Are you considering a fitout or refurbishment project? Contact Elite today on 1300 765 344, or take a look at some of our recent design and fitout work.